1 . Fascinating Facts about London’s Parks
Did you know that 47 percent of London consists of green space? Takeaway the private gardens and that leaves 37% of the capital’s green land given over to Royal Parks, gardens, and public green spaces. It’s the third greenest capital city in the world. Now let’s take a look at the most fascinating facts about London’s parks.
Handing out flowers in Green ParkNobody is totally sure how Green Park got its name. There are a few different theories. One tale says that the name originates from the time of Charles Ⅱ. The King was walking through the park with his wife and courtiers when he picked a flower. Instead of handing it to Queen Catherine, he handed it to another woman that was said to be his mistress. Extremely angry, the Queen ordered that all the flowers in the park be dug out, leaving only grass.
Counting trees in the Royal ParksWhen counted together, the Royal Parks contain over 170,000 trees, with the oldest being the 400-year-old chestnut trees in Greenwich Park. These are young trees, though, compared to London’s oldest tree—a great elm in High Barnet that is said to be over 2000 years old. London has more than 8 million trees: nearly as many as people there.
Underground secrets in GreenwichGreenwich Park shows more fascinating features. Deep under the surface are buried a series of secret tunnels that are tall enough for a person to walk. It’s been claimed that the tunnels were built as secret escape routes for King Henry Ⅷ. Their real purpose is a little less exciting, and the tunnels were actually built as waterways to allow groundwater from the hillsides to escape.
Walking is the best way to explore London’s beautiful green spaces. We hope you enjoyed these fun facts.
1. How much do private gardens cover in London green space?| A．47 percent. | B．33 percent. | C．37 percent. | D．10 percent. |
| A．The King Charles Ⅱ gave the park its name. |
| B．There were so many green trees in it. |
| C．Its flowers were removed and only grass was left. |
| D．The grass in the park was well protected by the Queen. |
| A．The hillsides with waterways. | B．Tunnels under its surface. |
| C．The statue of King Henry Ⅷ. | D．The oldest tree of London. |
2 . Secrets, whether they’re juicy, shocking or just plain funny, nothing compares to the thrill of opening up or listening to a friend’s confession (n.坦白). When a pal bares his heart to you, you can’t help but feel trusted and special. In fact, you’re a lot more likely now to tell him something you wouldn’t tell just anyone. When you’re first getting to know a new friend, start with small secrets.
No secret is ever 100 water-proof, but you can take steps to prevent getting your feelings hurt. First, when something you’re telling a friend is a secret, always say so. Every time when you share something confidential (adj.保密的), tell her that this is “for your ears only.” Also, don’t assume (v.假定,认为) someone will keep your secrets just because you know some of hers. Some people just have a tendency to blurt things out, which is why it pays to get a feel for how good a secret-keeper your friend is. Finally, make sure you get a reputation as someone who takes secrets seriously.
It’s not worth breaking a promise to a friend, but if a secret is too big for you to carry alone, you have a responsibility to tell someone. There are probably a few details about your life that you don’t feel like sharing, even with your closest friends. If the secret isn’t hurting you or your friendship, silence is golden. If you’re hiding something big and constantly worrying about your secret being leaked, it may be time to just spill (v.溢出) your beans. Taking control of a secret that’s eating you up inside isn’t easy.
So it seems clear that knowing when to let the secret out and when to zip your lips will help you a lot.
1. What is the purpose of the writer to mention a pal in the text?| A．To tell people when it’s okay to share a secret with someone. |
| B．To tell people how to gain others’ trust. |
| C．To tell people why he bares his heart to you. |
| D．To tell people who is the right people to express your heart. |
| A．Speak out without thinking. |
| B．Badmouth somebody. |
| C．Let out a secret. |
| D．Keep a secret. |
| A．Keep it silently. |
| B．Let the secret out. |
| C．Share the secret with your closest friend. |
| D．Take control of the secret. |
| A．Tips to know when to give away secrets |
| B．It’s always okay to tell a secret you promised to keep. |
| C．How to be successful with different secrets. |
| D．When to spill secrets |
3 . Although Lahongsang is only in her early 20s, she is a video blogger with eight years of experience, who is acquainted with video recording and social media sharing. Still in high school, she started her journey as a
“Whenever I encounter something worth recording. I
| A．assistant | B．vlogger | C．tutor | D．photographer |
| A．so | B．therefore | C．however | D．as far as |
| A．denying | B．motivating | C．describing | D．grasping |
| A．substantial | B．dramatic | C．awesome | D．diverse |
| A．enthusiastically | B．severely | C．reasonably | D．stably |
| A．handle | B．suspect | C．capture | D．recall |
| A．tutors | B．viewers | C．messengers | D．advisors |
| A．cheerful | B．modest | C．depressed | D．frustrated |
| A．admits | B．transforms | C．defends | D．anticipates |
| A．participated in | B．subscribed to | C．arose from | D．kept on |
| A．worried | B．optimistic | C．confused | D．complex |
| A．initially | B．vividly | C．steadily | D．logically |
| A．As | B．While | C．Since | D．Which |
| A．traced | B．cited | C．crafted | D．involved |
| A．Regardless of | B．Owing to | C．Thanks to | D．Without |
4 . Sam Krug is the second generation at Preferred Popcorn, a Nebraska (n.内布拉斯加州) factory that produces Americans favorite movie snack. Here fresh batches of popcorn are made every 15 minutes and immediately tested and tasted for quality.
The whole process begins with growing the right kind of corn, not surprisingly cold popcorn. The big difference between corn and popcorn is that popcorn has lots of starch (n.淀粉) inside of it. The shell is hard and so the starch, when you heat it up, mixes with the moisture in the kernel (n.玉米粒) and it boils inside of this. And it gets so hot and the shell is so hard on the outside that it gets hotter and hotter and more excited and more excited and eventually it just blows out.
Nebraska has perfect conditions for growing popcorn, including the right climate and plenty of water for irrigation. And you don’t have to look far to find local farmers to work with. They usually take it to the factory where the kernels are sorted by weight, color and size.
Factory staffs pop a sample of each batch to test it out. They always pop at 480 degrees and use exactly the same amount of oil when they are going to pop. During the course, factory standard coconut (n.椰子) oil is used.
The factory sells kernels for different kinds of popcorn, depending on how the buyer plans to prepare it. It seems that the Americans eat more popcorn than any other nation in the world. And the US Popcorn Board says that in 2018 they consumed more than 14 billion liters of the snack.
1. What do we know about Preferred Popcorn?| A．It is the second generation popcorn factory. |
| B．It produces fresh batches of popcorn every 15 minutes |
| C．It tests and tastes the quality of popcorns. |
| D．It produces popcorns for the Nebraska movie factory. |
| A．Because it has lots of starch inside of it. |
| B．Because the starch and moisture boils inside the hard shell. |
| C．Because the shell is hard. |
| D．Because it is cold popcorn. |
| A．The factory has already known the consumers’ plan. |
| B．The factory makes preparations for the buyers. |
| C．The factory sells kernels for different kinds of popcorns according to the workers’ needs. |
| D．The factory takes different consumers’ demand into consideration. |
| A．Production of the popcorns. |
| B．Reasons for Nebraska to grow popcorns |
| C．Procedures for growing the popcorn |
| D．Conditions for making popcorns. |
5 . Every afternoon for the past 11 years, 83-year-old AI Merritt has been a reliable and cheery presence in his southeast Carlsbad neighbourhood, California.
His wife, Penny Merritt said her husband’s doctor suggested he get more exercise after he had some heart trouble about 12 years ago. When their son, Kevin brought a bike to his parents’ house, AI started to pedal around the local road and hills. At first, his rides were about five miles long, then 10 to 12 miles, and gradually the length of his outings grew due to all the social stops — from an hour to two hours.
Since 2010, Merritt has been on a personal pursuit to cycle the circumference (周长) of the earth — 24,901 miles without even leaving his own neighbourhood. As a result, over the years, he got to know many of his neighbours and send them message of love and kindness. Judy Keene, one of his neighbours, has been waving to Merritt on his daily rides for the past five years.
“He is so reliable, like clockwork. Every day I see him flying by on his bike. He is totally cheerful and takes time with everybody,” Keene said. “He inspires so many people and shows everyone how you can be in your 80s and still have a good time.”
It was not until October 24 that the old man finally realized his daily bicycle trips were as important to them as they were to him. At 3 p.m. that Sunday afternoon, nearly 200 people gathered near his home to surprise and congratulate him on the completion of his “round-the-world” adventure. As he pedaled down the hill towards his house, a roar erupted from the crowd waving international flags, hand-painted signs and Earth-shaped balloons. The outpouring of love stunned and overwhelmed Merritt.
“It’s just unbelievable. I couldn’t have imagined anything like this ever happening,” he said. Although Merritt has now accomplished his cycling goal, he has no plans to change the routine that has become the highlight of his daily life.
1. Why did old AI Merritt start to cycle?| A．He has always been an athletic person. |
| B．His son Kevin brought him a new bike. |
| C．He wanted to send love and kindness to others. |
| D．He was advised to work out for the sake of his health. |
| A．Merritt stopped to help those in need |
| B．Merritt tried to help build stops for social use |
| C．Merritt had interactions with his neighbours |
| D．Merritt was stopped for some social reasons |
| A．His trips mattered more to his neighbours than to him. |
| B．He was warmly congratulated on his completion of the plan. |
| C．He will keep on cycling on a different route as he has planned. |
| D．He accomplished his goal of cycling 24,901 miles around the earth. |
| A．Diligent and determined. | B．Optimistic and selfless. |
| C．Ambitious and romantic. | D．Kind and inspirational. |
6 . For adults who have struggled with understanding new math homework or surprised at how quickly kids can learn a second language, there is new evidence that shows kids can really learn things much faster than adults.
A study published in Current Biology finds that children and adults have different concentrations of a key brain messenger called gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA. This messenger slows down the brain by blocking specific signals in the body’s central nervous system. It also produces a calming effect and is thought to play a major role in controlling the overactivity of nerve cells associated with anxiety, stress and fear. All these contribute to the learning of new things.
In the study, the researchers from Brown University used neuro-imaging techniques to examine visual perceptive (视觉感知的) learning in elementary school-aged children and adults. Participants were shown a number of different images and were later asked questions about them following the test.
Visual learning caused an increase of GABA in children’s visual cortex, the area of the brain that processes visual information. However, GABA levels didn’t change in the adults who took the same visual tests. In addition, children participants kept that GABA increase for hours after training ended, while the concentrations of GABA remained the same in the adults studied.
“In subsequent behavioral experiments, we found that children indeed learn more items within a given period of time than adults.” said Sebastian M. Frank, the co-author of the study. “Our results therefore point to GABA as a key player in making learning more efficient in children.”
These results, the authors argue, should encourage teachers and parents to keep giving children opportunities to learn anything from riding a bike to playing an instrument throughout their childhood.
The findings may also change neuro-scientists’ conception of brain maturity in children. “Although children’s brains are not yet fully mature and many of their behavioral and cognitive functions are not as efficient as in adults, children are not, in general, surpassed in their learning abilities by adults,” said study co-author Takeo Watanabe.
1. What’s the function of GABA?| A．Send specific messages to the brain. | B．Deal with complex math problems. |
| C．Make the nervous system more active. | D．Increase efficiency in learning new things. |
| A．Their GABA concentrations kept increasing after training. |
| B．Their learning abilities still needed to be improved. |
| C．They could remember more images than adults. |
| D．They were surpassed by adults in learning abilities. |
| A．By comparing participants’ reaction. | B．By analyzing statistics. |
| C．By collecting relative evidence. | D．By conducting online survey |
| A．Neuro-scientists don’t fully understand brain maturity in children. |
| B．Children are not mature in their behavior and cognition. |
| C．It takes a long time for children’s brains to be fully mature. |
| D．Children’s brain maturity does not affect their learning abilities. |
7 . Artificial intelligence(AI) models have long surpassed just creating text responses and images. Now, with only one sentence, Open AI’s latest text-to-video model, Sora, can turn your words into video with good visual quality while faithfully following your content instructions.
Sora is said to be superior to many other existing models with similar functions. The AI model can create videos at suitable aspect ratios (屏幕高宽比) for different devices. It also lets users quickly test out content in lower quality before making the high-quality version, which helps speed up output according to the user’s requests.
Aside from this, its ability to present videos in a realistic and smooth manner is astonishing. Sora can create detailed scenes with several characters, specific types of motion, and accurate subject and background details. Beyond the user’s requests, it also understands how these elements exist in the real world. For example, reflections in the water change as a woman walks by.
Sora’s amazing performance wouldn’t be possible without its helpful assistant, ChatGPT, which transforms simple sentences into detailed descriptions, improving the accuracy of output.
However, the current model isn’t perfect. It may have trouble accurately showing how things move in a complicated scene and might not get how one action leads to another. For example, if someone eats part of a cookie in a Sora-made video, the cookie might not look like it’s been bitten into. The model might mix up directions and find it hard to describe events in the right order. One possible reason is that Sora learns each basic unit of a video, known as a spacetime patch (时空补丁), independently.
Sora is still in the testing stage of development. OpenAI is now inviting network security professionals to make random attacks on Sora’s system, aiming to test the model’s possible weaknesses and risks. Sora has also been open to some visual artists, designers and filmmakers. Their feedback will assist OpenAI in enhancing the model to better serve creative professionals.
1. What is the main focus of paragraph 2 and 3?| A．Sora’s development. | B．Sora’s diversity. |
| C．Sora’s capabilities. | D．Sora’s popularity. |
| A．To highlight Sora’s potential safety risks. | B．To illustrate Sora’s existing limitations. |
| C．To showcase Sora’s perfect performance. | D．To explain the concept of a spacetime patch. |
| A．It has been made available to various industries. | B．Its commercial release has been called off. |
| C．It has exposed alarming security issues. | D．It is undergoing testing and improvement. |
| A．Sora: Lead the way in creating videos | B．Sora: Surpass existing ChatGPT |
| C．Sora:Generate a rich variety of videos | D．Sora:A perfect text-to-video AI model |
8 . As a child, I loved exploring the attic (阁楼) — a
I read about his
Years passed, and I grew up, but the
Today, when I hold the worn journal, I realize it’s not just a forgotten treasure, but a
In this
| A．dusty | B．dark | C．bright | D．clear |
| A．visible | B．open | C．locked | D．hidden |
| A．shaky | B．steady | C．warm | D．cold |
| A．failures | B．successes | C．adventures | D．achievements |
| A．satisfaction | B．imagination | C．description | D．assumption |
| A．traveling | B．sleeping | C．dreaming | D．waiting |
| A．bookshelf | B．attic | C．journal | D．box |
| A．true | B．fake | C．temporary | D．present |
| A．get in | B．get over | C．get through | D．get back |
| A．relative | B．family | C．national | D．personal |
| A．wealth | B．health | C．freedom | D．wisdom |
| A．destroy | B．forget | C．preserve | D．ignore |
| A．frustration | B．inspiration | C．boredom | D．confusion |
| A．lonely | B．lively | C．industrial | D．digital |
| A．Unless | B．As | C．If | D．Though |
9 . The sound of my mother preparing breakfast fills the house — my morning alarm.
As I drag my body toward the kitchen, I’m greeted by my mother standing over the stove. She effortlessly cooks a dish that blends Western and Eastern styles, a beloved breakfast classic in our family. This is my grandmother’s recipe, which reflected her upbringing.
Since my grandmother’s passing, I’ve become more aware of my mother’s aging and her dedication (奉献) to cooking for us. She has cooked for her family for more than 30 years, dividing her time between three countries — Korea, Canada and Germany. When my parents visit us from Korea, they stay with us for several months. My mother helps around the house, showing her cooking skills to provide delicious meals for me, my partner and our kids. In alternating years, she and my dad will travel to Berlin to spend a couple of weeks with my sister and her partner.
According to Statista, most Canadians claim to spend between 31 and 60 minutes preparing an average weekday dinner for themselves and others in their household. Ten percent of respondents to the 2022 survey stated that they spend more than an hour preparing their evening meal. My mother belongs to that 10 percent.
Her cooking extends beyond the kitchen, starting with careful grocery shopping trips where she examines produce (农产品) and finds the best deals. She takes everyone’s preferences and needs into account. The meal she creates becomes a ritual (仪式), bringing the family together to connect and share. Helping her out in the kitchen demands a great deal of patience. Yet, I know it’s her way of expressing love.
As I chop the vegetables, she glances over and notices that my carrots are not equally sized. She pushes me aside to take over the task.
“Just do the dishes.”
1. What do we know about the author’s mother from the text?| A．She has three daughters. |
| B．She has great cooking skills. |
| C．She lives with the author in Korea. |
| D．She invented the author’s beloved breakfast classic. |
| A．To show her mother’s devotion. |
| B．To present a common issue. |
| C．To explain the reasons behind infrequent cooking. |
| D．To highlight the significance of home-cooked meals. |
| A．Her mother is easily annoyed. | B．Her mother wants to teach her everything. |
| C．Her mother dislikes being disturbed. | D．Her mother expects perfection in cooking. |
| A．Mother’s Love Needs to Be Responded to |
| B．Mother’s Recipe Is the Best in the World |
| C．Mother’s Kitchen Draws Us Closer Together |
| D．Mother’s Selflessness Inspires My Family |
10 . In a heartwarming incident that highlights the power of human connection, a woman’s act of kindness saved the life of a struggling homeless man.
During a
Casey went over to engage him in
After
Upon opening the
Casey posted on social media later that day that “this lovely man’s name was Chris, and Chris was one of the most
| A．holiday | B．break | C．gap | D．pause |
| A．recognized | B．dominated | C．spotted | D．consulted |
| A．Basically | B．Repeatedly | C．Eventually | D．Amazingly |
| A．afford | B．deliver | C．abuse | D．guarantee |
| A．experiment | B．reputation | C．argument | D．conversation |
| A．Touched | B．Persuaded | C．Frustrated | D．Criticized |
| A．tea | B．coffee | C．gift | D．seat |
| A．dynamic | B．reliable | C．precise | D．mean |
| A．restored | B．spoke | C．enhanced | D．complained |
| A．realizing | B．convincing | C．disturbing | D．acquiring |
| A．leave | B．wait | C．skip | D．bless |
| A．reward | B．message | C．apology | D．excuse |
| A．book | B．door | C．note | D．essay |
| A．pursuits | B．welfare | C．reasons | D．hope |
| A．sincere | B．negative | C．enthusiastic | D．hardworking |
